The monetary policy committee of the Bank of England voted on Thursday to hold the interest rates at .5% and not to extend its programme of cash injections back into the economy.
The decision was expected by most and comes as the state of the economy showed mixed signs during the early months of 2010.
Although the service and retail sector showed signs of weakness during January which may have partially been due to the heavy snows, February showed signs of recovery activity. Overall the housing market once again seems to be weakening with prices starting to fall in February according to measures by both Halifax and Nationwide.
Measures that the Bank has been watching have also shown positive trends such as the M4 money which rose by about two percent in the first quarter of 2010, a drastic change from their steady decrease over the four prior months.
They currently have quantitative easing in place is which is the policy of creating money in the economy so that people spend more, which is aimed at helping to prevent a decline in the supply of money as banks reduce the amount of credit they issue.
In their statement on Thursday the Bank reinforced their previous stance that they will not change their current monetary policy except for in months where inflation forecasts for the quarter are available.
The last time that forecasts were published was back in February which prompted the MPC to put a hold on quantitative easing, which will be looked into again in May when the next set are published.
Costa is quickly becoming the rising star in the Whitbread group due to their new flat offering of a strong white coffee called the ‘flat white’ three weeks ago. The group reported that sales grew for all three of their businesses- Premier Inn, Beefeater, and Costa- which are spread across the UK.
Across Britain there are 1,066 Costa shops and in total Whitbread has 1,500 shops with plans to double the size of the brand over the course of the next four years according to chief executive Alan Parker. At least 1,500 of the new stores are planned for locations throughout the UK.
Parker is due to retire this coming November and some analysts believe that the person who takes his place may spin off Costa or sell it, but Parker pushed the issue aside as nonsense.
Premier Inn, the budget hotel chain, also saw strong sales last quarter due to a promotion that was headlined by Lenny Henry the comedian and offered rooms at £29 a month. The growth in sales was significant given that the last several quarters the chain experienced a steady decline.
Parker referenced this fact noting that the 1.7% increase in the last quarter was raised due to the fact that comparables last year were weak. Although revenue per room fell flat last quarter Parker still felt there was enough of a scope to make the expansion from 42,000 UK rooms to 70,000 UK rooms practical.
Also experiencing growth were the pub-restaurants owned by the chain with a total sales growth of three percent over the last quarter and total sales up by nine percent.
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